Beta elements, cut content, and related changes for Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall and FusionFall Heroes.
Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall
Park Project
In early 2006, then Vice President/Excecutive Producer at CN Chris Waldron noticed the success of Disney's ToonTown and pitched the idea to higher ups to make a similar game for Cartoon Network. Originally codenamed Park Project, the original project plan was much closer to ToonTown's structure, featuring smaller worlds connected by warp points and minigames. The intention was originally to directly emulate ToonTown's gameplay and structure before they settled on further developing the ideas into their own. Once their direction was better cemented, the relatively small budget allocated and focus on traditional MMO elements led the CN team to hire Grigon Entertainment, Korean developers with prior experience developing their own MMO, Seal Online. At least two different prototypes for FusionFall were developed to CN's specifications using the Gamebryo game engine and the Unity engine. The team decided on using Gamebryo to develop the game and they went to work.
Cartoon Network MMOG
Cartoon Network's MMOG FusionFall
Cartoon Network MMOG (Beta FusionFall)
Early on, FusionFall was marketed as Cartoon Network MMOG (Cartoon Network Massively Multiplayer Online Game). In the trailer, concept art and illustrations for various characters and locations are shown. The first trailer for the game uses the original Gamebryo prototype. Early infected zone elements like slides and jump pads can be seen in primitive states in an early version of Charles Darwin Middle School. Early UI can be shown that is evocative of the final game but differs in design. Also present is the Nano Wheel, an earlier version of the display for currently equipped Nanos. During later development of the game, the decision was made to switch to the Unity engine, so the game would run better on low-end computers, and be accessible through the use of a web browser.
Tutorial
The tutorial section of the game was originally going to be far different to the one that ended up in the final game. The game would've started with an opening cinematic, and when it was finished, the player would be met by Young Ben. Ben directs the player to meet Numbuh Five at the treehouse, but before they go, they need to head to the Command Post at City Hall to customize their character and get an ID badge. After he explains this, he turns into XLR8, and speeds off. When the player arrives at the Command Post, Ben and other CN heroes help the player through the process. When this is finished, the player is directed to a transportation hub, so they can get to the treehouse. After arriving at the treehouse, they are greeted by Numbuh Five, who directs them to a receiving area, where she greets them and checks their ID. Once their ID is verified, the player enters the equipment area, where Numbuh Two dispenses basic gear. The tutorial then teaches the fundamentals of combat. After that, Professor Utonium gives the player their nano holders, and explains what a nano is. Players then choose a mentor, and report to them for their first quest.
Characters
In very early stages of development, Mario Piedra the art director drew sketches of many characters. Some would not
make it into the final game. These include Mike, Lu, Og, Agent Honeydew and Monkey. Artwork for Mee Mee and Lee Lee were made by Midori Foo due to them being easy to make as they're just altered versions of Dee Dee's art. Aku was drawn by Midori Foo, but his art was only used for promotional purposes. Despite having locations from their shows (e.g. Charles Darwin Middle School from My Gym Partner's a Monkey and Camp Kidney from Camp Lazlo), no characters from My Gym Partner's a Monkey or Camp Lazlo appeared in the game. In a developer journal post on the FusionFall website, the game's art director Mario Piedra explains that some of the more animalistic characters are harder to translate to the FusionFall artstyle and world, specifically mentioning My Gym Partner's a Monkey and Camp Lazlo.[1] This means that they likely were planned to be in the game at some point, but were scrapped due to satisfactory designs not being made for them. According to FusionFall Retro Gamemaster Devan, there was another reason for no characters from those two shows appearing. The developers felt that animalistic characters wouldn't fit in a serious plot. Devan also stated that Lazlo, Raj, Clam, Scoutmaster Lumpus and Slinkman were initially planned, but were all replaced by characters who could be taken more seriously. The FusionFall Retro developers revealed official art for Adam Lyon and Mushi Sanban as well as sketches of Andy Johnson and Irwin. In the files of Retro, the texture for a Van Kleiss NPC can be found. This is likely a leftover from the Academy version of the game, which suggests that Kleiss was planned to be an NPC as well, and not just a transformation for the Unstable Nano.
Nanos
There are many Nanos that had models made for FusionFall (some of which can be found in the game itself), but ended up going unused. Young Ben was one of the first Nanos developed, effectively acting as a test Nano to run through the process. He ultimately wound up shelved because the developers found he wasn't quite as interesting as the various aliens from Ben 10. The Ghostfreak and Upgrade Nanos were originally the level 24 and 36 Nanos respectively. As a result of the developers changing the core Ben 10 representation to the Alien Force iterations because of its popularity and more rich lore, they were replaced by Swampfire and Humongosaur. Fourarms was left in the game to represent an original series alien. Interestingly, concept art was made for a Fiskerton Nano, which was even developed into a model. Analyzing the UV map of this model reveals that it was used as a base for the NPC or vice versa.
Six of the Academy released nanos were originally meant to be released in the cancelled expansion. These nanos were Chowder, Flapjack, Zak Saturday, Johnny Bravo and Cheese. Johnny Bravo and Cheese can still be found referenced in the code for a pre-academy build of FusionFall. They are listed as the nanos for levels 37 and 38 respectfully. The nano for level 39 is listed as Ben, and is a Cosmix nano. This nano would've most likely been a nano of Ben Tennyson based on his Alien Force iteration. Most of these Nanos were completely developed by the end of 2009, but Cheese and Johnny Bravo were completely developed by the release of the closed beta in late 2008. These six nanos are of noticeably higher quality when compared to the other Academy nanos as they were developed by the original developers, Grigon. The nanos would've accompanied new areas and levels. The Alien X nano was planned to be the first new nano released in the cancelled expansion.
There were going to be several code Nanos released in 2012, but were never released because updates stopped in late 2011. Some of these Nanos included Bobo Haha, Way Big, Ultimate Big Chill, Ultimate Wildmutt, and Spidermonkey.
Notably, the Alien X nano had its power changed from Sleep - Cone to Reality Fade from its initial announcement and the actual game release.
Fusion Monsters
Beta and changed elements related to Fusion monsters.
Tire Titan
The Tire Titan was an unused Fusion monster. It was cut late into development as it was seen in footage at San Diego Comic Con 2008 which was only six months before the game's release. It appeared at Goat's Junkyard and Candy Cove. It appears in the cutscene where Ben and Numbuh Five explain Planet Fusion to the player. The monster was going to return in the Fusion Safari event. One of the game masters would've continuously spawned it in areas of Downtown, but never appeared as the game stopped being updated. The monster appeared in FusionFall Heroes as a boss. The Tire Titan was added to FusionFall Retro on November 4th, 2018. It was renamed as Rage Roadkiller and was made a boss. It could be fought at Habitat Homes.
Generator
Concept art of the Generator.
A generator with three eyes and multiple wire-like legs. It was meant to appear somewhere in Downtown. Generator is an internal name, so it's unknown what the monster's real name is. It appeared in FusionFall Heroes, where it could be fought at Dexlabs.
Bike
A monster consisting of motorbike parts molded into the form of a sheep. This monster would have likely appeared in Habitat Homes. It could be seen on the loading screen.
Wind Breaker
Wind Breaker's image from the FusionFall Game Guide.
A monster that appeared in the FusionFall Game Guide, but never appeared in the actual game. It was supposed to appear in Marquee Row and it's boss version was called the Storm Breaker. It's description reads as follows: "It's easy to tell if a Wind Breaker's coming, at least in a stiff breeze. The wind passing over their bodies makes a sound like a bad symphony. Watch out, or you'll be the coda to this musical number."
Bullfish
Concept art of the Bullfish.
A monster that looks like a hybrid of a bull, a fish and an eel.
Ruin Rhino
Concept art of the Ruin Rhino.
A monster made out of vehicle parts. It likely would have appeared at Peach Creek Estates or Goat's Junk Yard.
Zombie Robot
Concept art of the Zombie Robot.
A robotic monster with an abnormally large claw arm.
Bird
Concept art of the Bird.
A bird-like monster made up of multiple musical instruments. It likely would have appeared at Marquee Row.
Mob 101
Concept art of Mob 101.
A monster that looks like a combination of a frog and a boat. It was planned to appear at Orchid Bay, near the wharf.
Bounce House Monster
According to FusionFall Retro gamemaster Devan, there was supposed to be a bounce house-like monster at the Aquarium or Petting Zoo. It has an icon, but no model.
Turret Monsters
Three turret-type monsters were going to appear in the cancelled expansions. They would have had very high HP, making them difficult to defeat. The first was a spherical spore-like enemy. The second was made of stone. The third was a metallic pyramid-shaped enemy. The spore turret became the Party Popper, which appeared at FusionFall Retro's 2019 Birthday Bash. The pyramid turret became the defense turrets found in Vilgax's Ship.
Elephantine Freak
A monster that resembles an elephant and a tree. It was technically used as it appeared in the Fusion Safari event where it was called the Lake/Cove/Forest Beast. It was continuously spawned by a game master in areas of the Suburbs and the Wilds. It would've appeared in the cancelled expansions as a normal enemy.
Hibagon in it's lair.
Hibagon
The Fusion Hominid monster fought in the Titan Nano mission is internally known as Hibagon. The Hibagon was a cryptid from The Secret Saturdays. The monster bears a great resemblance to the cryptid. It would've appeared on Monster Island.
Boss Monsters
The scrapped boss monsters.
Six boss monsters were going to appear in the scrapped expansions. They were never implemented into FusionFall, but are being implemented into FusionFall Retro.
The Gatekeeper
The Gatekeeper would have been the largest Fusion monster to date. As it's name implies, it was meant to guard a gate on Monster Island. As a result, it had no walking or running animations. The monster has been hacked into the game multiple times.[5]
Injustice Foe
The Injustice Foe is a combination of the Justice Friends. It was supposed to appear at Mt. Neverest. It was intended to be a final boss that served to conclude Dexter's guide missions. It's internal name is "Fusion Hero".
Shipwrecker
The Shipwrecker would have appeared in the Waveblue Sea expansion, but it's unknown where exactly it would've been located. It was added to FusionFall Retro on March 10th, 2019 and it could be fought at Bravo Beach. It's internal name is "Shipwreck".
Stone Scorpion
A giant scorpion-like monster. Not much is known about it.
Column Colossus
The Column Colossus didn't appear in FusionFall, but it did appear in FusionFall Heroes. It's internal name is "Neverest", suggesting it was supposed to appear in Mt. Neverest.
Dark Horntail
The Dark Horntail was added to FusionFall Retro on June 22nd, 2019. It can be fought at Dinosaur Pass. It's internal name is "Chameleon".
Fusions
The general designs for the Fusions went through an overhaul during development. Fusions were originally going to be relatively authentic copies of the characters Fuse intended them to mimic, with only minor differences such as green eyes and slightly different colored hair and clothes. This was dropped to give them a more alien looking design. The remnants of their earlier designs can be seen in missions where characters are fooled by Fusions.
Originally, Fusions were meant to be fightable outside of their lairs, as seen in one of the trailers with Fusion Professor Utonium being fought by the gates of Eternal Meadows.[2] While this does occur with the fusion blowfishes and fusion Echo Echo, the latter of which was part of a post-launch event, every other fusion is fought inside of a lair, or an otherwise closed-off area. Some fusions have discrepancies between their character art and their in-game model. Most fusions have yellow eyes on their in-game model; however, many of them are depicted with red eyes in their character art (e.g. Blossom, Bubbles, and Frankie). Notably, the opposite is true with Fusion Mandark, who has red eyes in-game, but yellow eyes in his character art.
The Fusion Kankers were originally going to be very different. Instead of the three girls as separate Fusions, they would've been combined into the Kankersaurus Rex (similar to the Kanderator from Ed, Edd n Eddy - The Mis Edventures and the Giant Kankers from the EEnE episode "Once Upon an Ed"), a massive three-headed Fusion dinosaur boss that roamed around the Tar Pits in the Darklands.
Areas
Beta and changed elements to areas.
Suburbs
Hookslice Country Club
Concept art of the golfing themed platforms
A heavily infected golf course area located in the Suburbs. Players would've been able to traverse it on foot or by golf cart. It was cut during development.
Swimming Hole
A swimming hole area was planned in the Suburbs, but never implemented.
Endsville Shopping Mall
This was going to be the infected zone of Endsville. It was likely scrapped due to it not fitting with the rest of the area.
Downtown
Townsville Zoo
This area was scrapped late in development. It would've been located in Downtown.
Townsville Aquarium
Another Downtown area scrapped late in development. It would've been located south of Townsville Center.
Wilds
Tar Pits
An area filled with tar pits. It was cut during development.
Darklands
The Darklands was originally supposed to be part of the Wilds, but they were separated from each other during development.
Dark Tree/Dark Glade
Concept art of the Dark Tree
The Dark Tree was planned to house a gauntlet were the final boss of the area would be a fusion version of the player. It was scrapped.
Other
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory was planned to be explorable. It would be entered using an underground tunnel. Concept art for it could be seen in Mandark's Digitizer.
Skull Rock
Skull Rock concept art
A location that can be seen on the map, but cannot be accessed without hacking. Not much is known about it other than it would have been a Kraken-shaped island. Players believed the area would be part of a Total Drama Island themed expansion. If a player went out of bounds to Skull Island, they could access an area used to test game mechanics. This testing area was moved east of Nowhere on December 2009.
Monster Island
Monster Island was a location from the Powerpuff Girls. It's where all the monsters from the show live. The Mother Blowfish, Fusion Blowfish and normal Blowfish would've appeared in the area. V.V. Argost would've appeared, too. He believed the Blowfish are a type of cryptid and he tries to get footage of them for his show, Weird World. All of the Blowfish were used for the Thanksgiving and Mother's Day events, instead. Argost would disappear after the Birthday Bash.
Stormalong Harbor
Stormalong Harbor is the home of the characters of the Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack. Stormalong was the least finished of the expansion areas. Fusions would've entered Bubbie's mouth and made her sick, turning her mouth into an infected zone. Bubbie's mouth would become Chowder's Mouth, instead. In the original game, it is stated by Flapjack that Stormalong was destroyed by Fuse.
The Absolution
The Absolution is TOM's ship. It would've crashed into the sea and become partially flooded. The inside of became an infected zone. TOM would give out missions that required the player to save the Absolution.
Mt. Neverest
Mount Neverest in some promo art at the top left.
Mt. Neverest was meant to be a full area instead of being used as a graduation area for the Academy. It was a home for the world's superheroes. It is believed that Major Glory, the Column Colossus and the Injustice Foe would've appeared there.
Null Void
It is unknown what the Null Void would've been used for in the expansions. It would've most likely appeared in the first expansion as it was Ben 10-themed. It was eventually used as the first area in the Academy. Players could access a scaled down version of it in FusionFall Retro from the Precipice.
Marzipan City
Marzipan City was planned, but work on the area never began. The only assets made relating to this area are NPCs and items.
The Underworld
There is no confirmation of this area existing, but there is some evidence of its existence. Jeff is internally labelled as an Underworld object.
Music
An unused song intended for Orchid Bay
Music pieces were originally intended to be around 2-3 minutes long, but were later shortened to be around 1-1.5 minutes long[3], with some exceptions such as FusionFall's main theme. Known early versions of music pieces for FusionFall are as follows: Science District, Midtown, and Stickybeard the Candy Pirate. There also exists an unused song for Orchid Bay, which ended up using the song "Seaside" in the final game. The Orchid Bay track would go on to be used in FusionFall Retro, where it would play in the Cutts and Bruises Skate Park.
Ben 10 Series
Originally, FusionFall was meant to use the 2005 original series version of the Ben 10 characters. However, with the introduction and growing popularity of Ben 10: Alien Force (which started in 2008), the developers shifted to using the Alien Force version of the characters instead. With the introduction of Ultimate Alien, more changes were made to be inline with the current Ben 10 series, but were not as drastic or major as the shift from the original series to Alien Force. This is likely because the art style and the majority of the designs from Alien Force were kept the same in Ultimate Alien. Additionally, it could of simply been a matter of priorities and changes in the development process that led to some elements getting changed and added over others. Unused and changed content related to the Ben 10 series is detailed below:
- The tie-in manga FusionFall: Worlds Collide uses young Ben instead of teenage Ben like in the final game. Notably, the last page of the manga showing Fuse's arrival to Earth was removed from the website, implying that more time passed between the manga's events and the full-scale invasion as a sort of retcon.
- The characters Hex, Tetrax, and Vilgax all had their original series designs when the game originally released due to not appearing in Alien Force at the time. All of them eventually made an appearance, but only Vilgax had his design updated to match his Alien Force incarnation, likely due to his continued involvement in post-launch missions, and because his redesign was more drastic than those of the other two.
- Fusion Vilgax is based on Vilgax's original series design, and retains this appearance despite Vilgax getting updated to match Alien Force.
- Fusion Kevin is based on Kevin's "Kevin 11" mutation instead of his in-game, 16/17-year old human appearance. Notably, sketches of Kevin 11 can be seen on the FusionFall website's credits page.[4]
- The Four Arms nano is based on Four Arms's original series design. This is due to Four Arms not being used in Alien Force, as he was locked when the Omnitrix re-calibrated.[5] He did appear in Ultimate Alien, but his nano was not updated to match his new design.
- The Vilgax nano is based on his original series design (pre-enhancements[6]), rather than his Alien Force/Ultimate Alien design.
- Although art of Ben with the Ultimatrix was made to be consistent with Ben 10: Ultimate Alien[7], art of him with the Omnitrix still gets used in some instances. For example, in the Academy version of the game, Ben is depicted with the Ultimatrix in the first scene, but has the Omnitrix in the ending scene.[8] Additionally, Ben's in-game model was never updated to give him the Ultimatrix.
- Notably, Albedo's model depicts him with the Omnitrix as well. This is possibly due to Ben's model likely being used as a base for Albedo's, given that both of them have the same design. The only differences between Ben's model and Albedo's are the colours, and that Albedo has an evil grin on his. Art of Albedo for FusionFall does exist[9], but his hands are blocked, so it's unclear if he has the Omnitrix, Ultimatrix, or any Omnitrix at all. It's also possibly an edit of artwork for Ben, given that he's in the same pose as one of Ben's art pieces.[10]
- Grandpa Max was originally one of the four guides. He was replaced by Ben when he was given his Alien Force design.
Unused Items and Features
Ultra Rare Prototype Gear
Ultra Rare Prototype Shoes stat window
In the games code, there are items known as 'Ultra Rare Prototypes" that go unused. According to the description of the items, the player would've been able to combine these items with an item of the same type, making the item stronger. It is possible that these items were going to be involved in croc potting. Due to the items already being fully added to the game, they must have been cut late into development.
Unused Container Items
The unused container items icons
There are unused items called "containers" in the games code. They are referred to as "small container", "medium container", "large container", and "free container". Not much is known about their intended function, but the item's description says that you can "redeem at item list", which could possibly refer to the scrapped Premium Shop/Cash Shopping Mall.
Unused Boosts and Upgrades
The Warp Monkey item window
Within the games code, there is a list of items, boosts, and upgrades that never made it into the game, as well as some that did. The list is as follows: Invulnerable, FM Bonus, Taros Bonus, Nano Change, Bank, Bank Expansion (which was somewhat implemented into Retro), Warp Monkey (as seen in pic), Upgrade and Upgrade 2 (which could possibly be the Mechamorph E.G.G.E.R. E.G.G.s), Revive Token (which was later implemented into Retro), and a redeemable item that allowed the player to change an avatars hair. This could also have been from the unused shops.
Premium Store and Cash Shopping Mall
A premium store was planned for the game at launch. When the developers were discussing the game's revenue model, this was what they settled on. This store sold boosts, potions, cosmetics and vehicles. A month prior to release, the store was scrapped in favor of having ads in the game. According to a developer, this was the biggest mistake they had ever made and contributed to Grigon Entertainment going bankrupt and the game having a much shorter lifespan than anticipated. Many of the items intended for this store became available as racing rewards in FusionFall Retro. There was also planned to be an in-game shop for special items, but this was also scrapped. An unfinished menu for this shop can be accessed in OpenFusion.
Auction House
According to the official planning documents for the game, an auction house system was supposed to be added not long after the initial launch of the game, but it never came to pass. Ironically, the document states that the auction house is to be added as soon as possible.
Clubs/Secret Bases
What appears to be a guild and player housing system was supposed to come after the initial release of the game, according to the beforementioned documents.
Mini-Games
Some type of mini-games were planned to be added after launch according to the planning documents, but nothing more is said about them.
PvP Area
The game was planned to have an area where PvP combat would be possible, but it was never fully implemented into the game. The remnants of this PvP system can be found when using GM mode, as GM players can attack and kill non-GM players, but non-GM players cannot fight back.
FusionFall Heroes
Dexter
Dexter's model was slightly altered when transitioning from the original FusionFall to FusionFall Heroes. The lenses of Dexter's glasses are lighter and more vibrant on his FusionFall Heroes model in comparison to his original FusionFall model. The lenses were also made completley opaque, rather than being somewhat transparent like they were before.
Finn
Finn's eyes were adjusted from his FusionFall model to more closely resemble his FusionFall artwork for FusionFall Heroes. His shoes were also changed from black to brown. In contrast, most character models remained the same from FusionFall to FusionFall Heroes.
Unused Models
Models of Megas and Titan can be found with the games files.
Trivia
- Four Arms is a playable character in FusionFall Heroes, but lacks an attire based on his Ultimate Alien appearance. Only the original series Four Arms and Omniverse Four Arms designs were used.
- Dexter, Dee Dee, Ed, Samurai Jack, Numbuh Three, Ben, and Mandy are all shown in the alpha trailer, which suggests that they may have been some of the first characters redesigned for the game. Though notably, Ben, Gwen, and Kevin would've been redesigned again so that they could be based on Ben 10: Alien Force rather than the original series, assuming that they were all designed before this decision was made.
- While the Ghostfreak Nano was scrapped, the model was used as a prop for the ghost house at Dizzy World. The developers didn't want the work they put into the Nano to go to waste.
See Also
FusionFall Retro Beta Elements
References
- ↑ (06.09.2010) Wayback Machine - Community/News/Developer's Journal #1 - "Meet Art Director Mario Piedra"
- ↑ Fusion Professor Utonium being fought outside of his lair (time stamp: 1:38).
- ↑ Devan - Science District V1 Video Description
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Ben 10 Wiki - Ben 10: Alien Force Episode - "Ben 10 Returns: Part 1"
- ↑ Ben 10 Wiki - Vilgax (Classic)
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ Story
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ [4]